If you’re heading out and are overwhelmed by the size of your pack,
remember Grandma Gatewood’s gear:
sweater, jacket, scarf, light wool blanket to sleep in, plastic curtain for
a tent, two plastic eight-ounce baby bottles for water, rain hat, rain cape
(double as ground cloth) flashlight, Swiss army knife, teaspoon, tin cup,
matches, Band-Aids and Mercurochrome, safety pins, hair pins, needle and
thread, buttons, soap and towel, bouillon cubes, chipped beef, raisins,
peanuts, powdered milk, salt.
And she did the entire AT when she was 67!
There’s a really cool new book out that has lists like these. It’s called
Journeys of Simplicity by Philip Harnden. Muir, Thoreau, Peace Pilgrim,
Pirsig, and other cool folks are in there, too.
TravelLight